This needs the hero tag. Excellent on you, Braylon.

IAmRight: Yup, I'd like to make fun of Braylon's hands of stone, but c'mon, great story, great follow-through.

/thread does need some Michael Scott, though

It's good to see stories like this. I was expecting this to be he was selling cocaine for scholarships.

/Not really. Those just seem to be the stories we get lately.

Not impressed

Very cool.

ThatGuyGreg: A C+, huh? Aim high!

David Letterman would like a word...
Link (new window)

There are exceptions (e.g., kids who are lazy in high school), but most people who only manage a 2.5 GPA probably don't belong in college.

2.5? Srsly?

Wonder how much he drank before that speech? Damn that makes for an expensive day!

For all the people harping on the GPA, that's just the minimum. All these kids still had to gain acceptance to college first before receiving any money and most colleges I know of require more than a 2.5 plus a decent SAT/ACT score. Seeing as how some of them got into universities such as Harvard, Cornell, and John Hopkins and that they exceeded the state graduation average by nearly thirty percent, shows that they did pretty well. Maybe knowing that their school would be paid for motivated them to do better.

Given that the article says only half of the area students on average finish high school, and he got a group that graduated 79 out of 100, I wouldn't harp on the 2.5 minimum he set. If that group's average, he got 29 kids to finish high school that otherwise would not have. That's a hell of a thing.

Gosling: Given that the article says only half of the area students on average finish high school, and he got a group that graduated 79 out of 100, I wouldn't harp on the 2.5 minimum he set. If that group's average, he got 29 kids to finish high school that otherwise would not have. That's a hell of a thing.

YOU ARE ASSUMING THE 100 WERE RANDOMLY SELECTED!

/drunk statistician

Now I feel like an ass for demanding the Niners cut him.

The amazing part is that the schools they attend will take this scholarship into account and give them less financial assistance.

/The schools are the problem, not the banks.

themadtupper: This seems like a really cool thing for Braylon to do, so I don't want to come down on him at all, but isn't giving $10,000 plus laptops and school supplies to college athletes a gross violation of NCAA rules?

They aren't student athletes for the most part.

themadtupper: This seems like a really cool thing for Braylon to do, so I don't want to come down on him at all, but isn't giving $10,000 plus laptops and school supplies to college athletes a gross violation of NCAA rules?

lol'd.

/Though unless he used it to get them to join a specific school, I don't think so?

Gosling: Given that the article says only half of the area students on average finish high school, and he got a group that graduated 79 out of 100, I wouldn't harp on the 2.5 minimum he set. If that group's average, he got 29 kids to finish high school that otherwise would not have. That's a hell of a thing.

Quite.

/It's cool that he did something
//Edwards will be scary if he ever learns how to catch a farking ball

While I'm so glad he's not a Brown anymore (no Braylon, not because you went to Michigan, but because you are a butterfingers diva biatch), I give him mad props for fulfilling his commitment on this. Good on ya Stonehands.

SouthpawSlicer: While I'm so glad he's not a Brown anymore (no Braylon, not because you went to Michigan, but because you are a butterfingers diva biatch), I give him mad props for fulfilling his commitment on this. Good on ya Stonehands.

Paul Blake would like a word.

GAT_00: It's nice to see not everyone in the NFL is a self-centered cockbag these days. Of course, I do note that this isn't one of the guys getting paid the real money.

Any Browns fan will tell you he got PLENTY from them as a top 5 pick in the draft. He could have socked away $800k and then paid the difference when the time came to pay up if 100% of the kids came through.

themadtupper: This seems like a really cool thing for Braylon to do, so I don't want to come down on him at all, but isn't giving $10,000 plus laptops and school supplies to college athletes a gross violation of NCAA rules?

Hmm, Harvard, Cornell, and John Hopkins... eh, Lacross players get a lot of slack on the rules violations. (unless they are falsely accused of raping strippers that is)

Yeah, well, I still don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan.

my opinion of Mr. Edwards just went up like 100000000000000000000%

Ken VeryBigLiar: GAT_00: It's nice to see not everyone in the NFL is a self-centered cockbag these days. Of course, I do note that this isn't one of the guys getting paid the real money.

Any Browns fan will tell you he got PLENTY from them as a top 5 pick in the draft. He could have socked away $800k and then paid the difference when the time came to pay up if 100% of the kids came through.

Plus, under the new CBA, the players also get a cut of the TV money that ends up working out to just about $2mil per player per year.

NetOwl: There are exceptions (e.g., kids who are lazy in high school), but most people who only manage a 2.5 GPA probably don't belong in college.

Cleveland Public Schools have a dropout rate of like 60%, so someone graduating with a GPA of 2.5 is pretty much a miracle in Cleveland...

/Percentage is from 2009, so could have gone down a bit, but I doubt much.
//Don't hate.

abrannan: Ken VeryBigLiar: GAT_00: It's nice to see not everyone in the NFL is a self-centered cockbag these days. Of course, I do note that this isn't one of the guys getting paid the real money.

Any Browns fan will tell you he got PLENTY from them as a top 5 pick in the draft. He could have socked away $800k and then paid the difference when the time came to pay up if 100% of the kids came through.

Plus, under the new CBA, the players also get a cut of the TV money that ends up working out to just about $2mil per player per year.


No, they don't.

This money from television revenue is not extra money paid to players. It is a part of the revenue each team earns that it has to pass on to players as part of the salary cap. So when players are paid, I'm saying an average of about $2 million per player over the new TV deal -- from 2014 through 2022 -- will come from the money Big TV pays the NFL. It is not some bonus, or extra money in addition to a player's regular salary.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/12/20/week.15 /index.html#ixzz1hH4VDZrx

Excellent!

Awesome thing he did for those kids.

But I'm guessing in 2005 he placed $1 million in some trust so that if all the kids graduated he would have the money to pay out. That $1 million probably gained some in interest alone if not from some sort of investments. Which is why each kid got laptops and supplies. Otherwise he'd be paying taxes on that interest since it wouldn't have ALL gone right to a charitable cause.

So his salary this year is safe.

Nice work.

NetOwl: There are exceptions (e.g., kids who are lazy in high school), but most people who only manage a 2.5 GPA probably don't belong in college.

This kind of thinking is exactly whats wrong with secondary education. Punish people for screwing around in high school and when they're actually mature and ready to do something with themselves they are unable to do anything because the entire system judges you based on how you acted when you're 16.

IAmRight: GAT_00: It's nice to see not everyone in the NFL is a self-centered cockbag these days. Of course, I do note that this isn't one of the guys getting paid the real money.

Well, he would've been if he could actually catch. I mean, I don't want to bag on the guy especially considering him being a nice guy, but he was a highly-touted draft pick that would be very highly paid right now if he'd produced in the NFL.

His rookie contract had $20 million guaranteed in it. I'm sure that when he made this promise, he set aside enough to cover it. Yeah, he's not making all that much now but he certainly made enough then.

themadtupper: This seems like a really cool thing for Braylon to do, so I don't want to come down on him at all, but isn't giving $10,000 plus laptops and school supplies to college athletes a gross violation of NCAA rules?

It was an academic scholarship, not an athletic one. Even if some of these kids happened to be varsity athletes, as long as the scholarship was given based on something other than athletic ability, they're in the clear.

Good to read news about a NFL player that doesn't involve drugs or a dead girlfriend. Braylon has set an example the rest of the league should try to emulate.
/dont care if he can't catch a pass

blubaldnuglee: Good to read news about a NFL player that doesn't involve drugs or a dead girlfriend. Braylon has set an example the rest of the league should try to emulate.
/dont care if he can't catch a pass

Agreed.

How many of us have given a year's salary to help others? What a tremendous and selfless act.

http://www.eldoradopromise.com/

Imagine if more athletes did this sort of thing.

I know there are planty who do great charity work, but just imagine if every sports team had 3 or 4 guys who did this for the worst neighborhoods in their team's city.

ltdanman44: my opinion of Mr. Edwards just went up like 100000000000000000000%

Mine too. I'd like to formally retract all the bad things I said about him when he played for the Jets (and trust me, there were plenty).